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I am a degreed teacher, and I support homeschooling for parents who are able to commit to it. Homeschooling takes time and effort to do it well. You want your son to have a quality education, and you need to plan and gently correct his efforts.

When our oldest son was in the seventh grade, he was having a hideous school experience. I pulled him out and started homeschooling him. It was the best decision that we ever made as a family. He had many high-quality and challenging educational experiences. When he went back into the public schools, he did very well.

If you are going to homeschool, here are some suggestions from a homeschooling mom who has done it before:

*When planning lessons for groups of homeschoolers, be sure to plan two to three times as much material as you think they can complete. These kids plow through educational material.

*Commit time and resources to this endeavor. Homeschooling is NOT easy. Make sure that you get teacher's manuals for all of your materials. They are worth the extra money. Buy books secondhand.

*If your son is in high school, and you want the child to transition back to public school, make sure that you know your school district's feelings on this. You don't want to try to make the transition when your guy is a junior, only to find out that none of your credits will count. You can get around this by joining a virtual school or using certain curriculum. Sometimes an excellent ACT score can help your child get into college, even with a diploma from a non-accredited school.

*Keep great records! Retain your lesson plans, examples of work products, and the time that you spent in the classroom.

Of all of my teaching experiences, my homeschooling time was my very best. We took a lot of amazing field trips. The experiences were rich for all of us. We went to Colorado in October, and it counted as school!

Connie, thanks for everything you said. I wouldn't quit homeschooling for anything. It *is* amazingly rewarding for my children and me. I agree with you about planning so much more material. My 7 year-old son is in 6th grade math, and my 9 year-old daughter is in Pre-Algebra. All of my kids have ridiculously great grammar skills...and we only school about 3 hours a day. I couldn't slow down their progress if I wanted to.

When you homeschool,you begin to look at everything in a new way, so every experience becomes school. Watching the series "Universe" on TV (History Channel, Science Channel? I can't remember) becomes a wonderful Astronomy course when parental discussion and supplementary materials are included.

We, too, go to CO off-season (Sept. this year), and it *is* school. There's no better visual lesson in historical and physical geology!

Thanks again for the wisdom, Connie!

Hi Connie and Laura. I, too, have a valid teaching credential as well as a master's in education. But I homeschooled my children during crucial periods of their academic lives, and I wholly support capable parents of doing the same.

Capable is the key, however. There are a lot of parents who homeschool for the wrong reasons.

But if I could do it all over again, I would have homeschooled them for their entire k-12 years.

Hi, Lori. I'm curious what you think homeschooling for the right/wrong reasons is. I would think that the desire to homeschool is reason enough. As to education, I don't have any degrees in education at all. I have BAs in History and Political Science, and a Ph.D. in Political Science, but I know lots of women with no degrees at all who do a great job teaching their kids.

I plan to homeschool mine through high school. I can't wait to be able to delve into the really meaty subjects with them - literature, philosophy, logic, etc.

Unschooling all the way! Love it! That said, I realize that schools certainly serve a very important role in our world. My hat is off to the parents that manage that job as well.

I love homeschooling for more reasons than how bright my children are. I love it because it creates a strong family base for us. I have really gotten to know my girls, my husband and myself. In this environment my girls feel secure and are growing with confidence.

Academically, I have my Masters, but am constantly learning so much more. Often, I feel like they get a subject so much more than I do.

It is difficult. This job is 24/7. Yet, its rewards are magnificent. Like I said, all the way!!!

Great topic Connie.

There are some people who "homeschool" their kids so they do not have to expose themselves to the scrutiny of the watchdogs in the public school system. Some parents struggle with drug and alcohol problems and they do not want to deal with having to get their kids to school on time, turn in homework, go to parent-teacher conferences, etc. Abusers don't like to send their kids to school. Some parents are lazy and take off time from teaching, believing that simply living is learning (could be true, depending on your lifestyle.) Some want to control what their children are taught and what they are exposed to. Even if they have their children's best interests at heart, some parents make narrow-minded decisions about what goes into their kids' minds, preventing them from enjoying a wide and enriching social and academic experience.

I consider those reasons to be the "wrong" reasons for homeschooling your children. I agree that you don't need a degree to be a great teacher. But you do need to be a diligent sharer of knowledge, enthusiastic experiencer of life and a lover of learning. You need to be focused on your child's learning. While it does help to use resources that reach a child according to his developmental understanding and then build upon that, children learn naturally from all resources.

I hope you didn't take any unintended offense at anything I said. In no way did I mean to imply that only certified teachers are qualified to homeschool. I definitely do not believe that. I homeschooled my children before I got my MA in education and credential.

Oh, Lori, I wasn't offended at all! In fact, it's proof of how naive I am that I didn't even think of those reasons. Because I can't imagine hurting my children or trying to hide them away, it's not even on my radar. I'm not easy to offend - I love open dialog about everything, even when I have very strong feelings on one side.

Yvonne, the family bond is a major reason I love homeschooling, too. My kids are all so close in age that I feel if I work to foster their relationships now, they will have friends and allies for life. The sibling relationship is the longest any of us will likely ever have - longer than with our parents or spouses. Too many siblings end up going their own ways, though, or becoming more involved with their friends than their sibs. I am *not* suggesting that my children should have no friends - they all have friends. I do firmly believe, though, that their first loyalty is to each other. Homeschooling makes it much easier to create the environment that nourishes those relationships.

Lori, I have known kids who were "homeschooled" by parents who did not take the job seriously. Then, after a couple of years of learning little and doing less, they put their children back in the public school. At that point, it is the public school that they blame for their children's lack of progress. The poor kids are just so adrift in a sea of learning that they don't have the background or skill levels to understand. When the kid becomes frustrated and acts out, they become a "problem child." It is pitiful

Laura, my younger sister homeschooled both of her kids. She does not have a teaching degree, and at the time, she had no degree at all. She is everything that a homeschooling teacher/parent should be. Donna is a lifelong learner who searches out opportunities to make curriculum exciting and relevant. She makes sure that her children have what they need to be successful. Her children are in college and doing well.

Donna is a testament to the reality that a good teacher does not need a degree. She needs a prowling mind, dedication to learning, and a sense of wonder with the world of knowledge.

I do not have a teaching degree, but I homeschooled both of my children. I took the job very seriously. At one time I lived in a trailer park across from a teacher in the public school system. The superintendent came to check on me one day to make sure I was actually doing the job. I wasn't home, but the teacher who lived across from me happened to be there. He had seen me teaching my children and he had spoken with my children. My daughter happened to be friends with his daughter. He vouched for me in such a way that the superintendent never checked on me again.

There are those who say they are homeschooling their children, even when they aren't. That is a shame and gives a bad name to the rest of us who actually do take it seriously and work hard at it. Homeschooling is by no means easy.

Those who don't actually teach their children, whether they have a degree or not, need to be punished by law, not just overlooked. Their children are the ones who will suffer for lack of an education.